Oct. 12, 2007
DURHAM, NC – Carrie DeMange had a match-high 28 kills and Rachael Moss added 21 kills for No. 13 Duke, which came back from an 0-2 deficit to win a 3-2 (28-30, 31-33, 30-25, 30-22, 15-12) match against Georgia Tech (10-7, 4-3 ACC) Friday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium. With the win, the Blue Devils remained atop the Atlantic Coast Conference standings with a perfect 9-0 league record while improving to 14-3 on the season.
An 11-0 run by the Blue Devils in game number three enabled Duke to climb back from a 17-10 deficit to win its first of three-straight games to close out the match. After using a 7-0 run to take a 12-7 lead in the fifth and final game, the Blue Devils held off a late Yellow Jacket charge to win the final game 15-12.
Chrissy DeMichelis and Ulrike Stegemann paced the Yellow Jackets with 17 kills apiece, while junior outside hitter Talisa Kellogg added 13 against the Blue Devils. Stegemann posted her third double-double of the season by also recording 14 digs, while Michelle Kandell led Tech with 23 digs on the night. Jordan McCullers was the only other Yellow Jacket in double figures, posting a season-high 15 digs against Duke.
Callie Miller posted a season- and match-high seven blocks in addition to recording 11 digs, while senior middle hitter Nikki Kaminskas added six total blocks.
The Blue Devils used a 6-0 run behind the solid hitting of middle blocker Carrie DeMange, who posted 11 kills in the first game, to take an early 6-3 lead. The Jackets used a pair of 3-0 runs to get back into the game, tying the match at 21-21 before taking their second lead of the frame at 23-22 on an attack error by DeMange, one of six she had in the game. Tech extended its lead to two at 28-26 on a service ace by Allie Niekamp and held on for the 30-28 win.
Tech fell behind early again in the second game but, trailing by four at 21-17, went on a 8-1 run behind the strong serving of Ulrike Stegemann and Lindsey Gray to take a 25-22 lead. Duke would tie the game at 28-28 on back-to-back kills by Jourdan Norman and Sue Carls, but the two teams traded the next seven points before Nikki Kaminskas and Talisa Kellogg blocked DeMange’s back row attack for the 33-31 victory.
The win marked the first time in 2007 that a conference team had earned back-to-back game wins off the Blue Devils, and the first time all season that a team had earned back-to-back game wins against Duke at Cameron Indoor.
Duke used an 11-0 run to battle back from a 17-10 deficit in game three before earning 30-25 win. The Jackets committed five attack errors during the run, which was keyed by outside hitter Rachael Moss, who had six kills in the frame.
Moss recorded eight kills and DeMange added five as Duke evened the match at 2-2 with a 30-22 victory in game four. The Yellow Jackets hit .317 in the game, but couldn’t overcome the Blue Devil offense, which hit a blistering .535 in the frame, with 23 kills and no errors on 43 attempts.
The Yellow Jackets will continue on to Winston-Salem to face the Wake Forest Demon Deacons Saturday in a match that is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at Reynolds Gymnasium. The match can be found on ACC Select (gatech.playonsports.tv), with live stats available at RamblinWreck.com.
